This invention relates to treatment of human skin and hair, and more particularly to method and system of conditioning human skin and hair using interchangeable conducting heads.
A variety of methodologies have been pursued to improve human skin treatments that enhance skin appearance. One particular treatment includes the application of safe, low-levels of current to human skin in conjunction with topical preparations such as skin cleansers and moisturizers. Several hand-held devices have been used in the past to apply low-level electrical current to the skin.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,167 describes a hand holdable skin treatment apparatus that applies a small charge of electrical energy to selected contours of the face and neck. The skin treatment apparatus includes a housing containing a battery powered circuit. A pair of spaced apart electrical conductors are mounted on the exterior of the housing. During operation, one of the conductors is in continuous contact with the user""s hand while the other conductor is horseshoe shaped and applied to the skin to be treated.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,038 that is directed to a skin treatment system and method using a hand-held electric skin/hair conditioner, an alkaline pH pretreatment, and an acidic pH treatment. The hand-held conditioner includes a housing containing electrical circuitry including a microprocessor and a rechargeable battery, an alphanumeric display coupled with the microprocessor, and two external broad area conductive electrodes conducted to the circuitry. The treatment unit also includes recharging terminals for use with a recharger assembly. One of the electrodes, a hand-engaging electrode, is adapted to be in continuous contact with a user""s hand during use, and the other electrode, a skin electrode, is adapted to apply electrical current to the skin of the user. The method includes applying the pretreatment to clean skin, holding the skin electrode to the cheek, moving the skin electrode over the skin to be treated while transmitting negative and positive current flow, washing the treated skin, applying the treatment to the skin, and moving the skin electrode over the skin to be treated.
Although the aforementioned skin treatment devices are useful for applications to facial skin, treatment of other areas of the body, such as scalp/hair and body skin, is desirable. Numerous health care and beauty care products have been developed for facial skin therapy, but many products have also been developed for application to other areas of the body. What is needed is a skin/hair treatment unit for use with a variety of body surfaces such as scalp/hair, body skin, and facial skin. Additionally needed is a skin/hair treatment unit having a hand engaging electrode that is optimally positioned to enhance conductivity to the face skin, body skin, and scalp/hair. Further needed is a skin/hair treatment system with a treatment unit having simple and easy interchangeable interfaces to address a variety of body surfaces.
An object of this invention is to provide a skin/hair treatment unit for use with a variety of body surfaces such as scalp/hair, body skin, and facial skin.
Another object of this invention is to provide a skin/hair treatment unit having a hand engaging electrode that is optimally positioned to enhance conductivity to the face skin, body skin, and scalp/hair.
A further object of this invention is to provide a skin/hair treatment system with a treatment unit having simple and easy interchangeable interfaces to address a variety of body surfaces.
A more particular object of this invention is to provide a skin/hair treatment system having a hand-held treatment unit with interchangeable interface conductors, each of which are optimally shaped for use with a variety of body surfaces.
Another more particular object of this invention is to provide a skin/hair treatment system having a hand-held treatment unit with device ergonomics that increase the ability of the user to adequately hold the unit under various adverse conditions.
Another object of this invention is to provide a skin/hair treatment method for application to a variety of body surfaces including body skin, scalp/hair, and facial skin.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by providing a hand-held skin/hair conditioner having at least one interchangeable interface conductor that is attachable to the conditioner and electrically coupled with the conditioner. The skin/hair conditioner also includes a housing having a front end and a hand-engaging surface, a front end electrode conducted to the front end of the housing, a hand-engaging electrode conducted to the hand-engaging surface of the housing, a power source contained within the housing, an electrical system conducted to the power source, the hand-engaging electrode, and the front electrode for controlling current supplied to the hand-engaging electrode and the front end electrode.
These and other objects of the invention are also accomplished by providing a skin/hair conditioning system having a topical water-based pretreatment preparation with negatively charged ions, a topical water-based treatment preparation with positively charged ions, and the aforementioned hand-held skin/hair conditioner.
These and other objects of the invention are also accomplished by providing a method of conditioning human skin/hair by selecting an interchangeable interface conductor for a hand-held conditioner based on an application to a body area, pretreating the body area with a negatively charged ionic pretreatment preparation, operate the hand-held conditioner in contact with the pretreatment preparation and the body area, removing the pretreatment preparation, treating the body area with a positively charged ionic treatment preparation, operating the hand-held conditioner in contact with the treatment preparation and the body area and removing excess acidic treatment, if necessary.